John wants to perform an experiment that demonstrates motion when two objects collide. He uses a cue stick to strike a white ball, which then collides with a red ball. The image below shows John's experimental setup.

Question

Both the white ball and the red ball have the same mass. John then records how far the red ball moves after the collision. John conducts four trials, striking the white ball differently in each trial to attain different speeds. The table below shows the distance traveled by the red ball when the white ball collides with it at different speeds.

Speed of Cue Ball (m/s) Distance Traveled by Billiard Ball (cm)
0.25 15
0.50 64
0.75 143
1.0 255

Which of the following statements best explains the results of the experiment?
A.
The white ball has more potential energy when it is moving faster.
B.
The white ball has more kinetic energy when it is moving faster.
C.
The white ball has more kinetic energy when it is moving slower.
D.
The white ball has less potential energy when it is moving slower.

Answer 1

The results of the experiment indicate that as the speed of the cue ball (the white ball) increases, the distance traveled by the red ball also increases significantly. This relationship suggests that the energy transferred from the white ball to the red ball is related to the speed at which the white ball is moving.

The correct statement that best explains these results is:

B. The white ball has more kinetic energy when it is moving faster.

Kinetic energy is given by the formula \( KE = \frac{1}{2}mv^2 \), where \( m \) is the mass of the object and \( v \) is its velocity. As the speed of the cue ball increases, its kinetic energy increases, which results in a greater transfer of energy to the red ball upon collision, leading to a longer distance traveled by the red ball.